Pumpkin Burfi (Sitaphal or Kaddu ki burfi)

Pumpkin Burfi is a delicious sweet dish. No matter how health conscious you are you need a little dessert sometimes. Pumpkin burfi is a perfect healthy treat, with its orange color any one will be tempted to eat them. It is prepared with grated pumpkin (kaddu), koha (ricotta cheese), milk and sugar and flavored with cardamoms and saffron which gives this burfi an awesome flavor. Pumpkin Burfi is very easy to make and you can make variation according to your taste.

​In India Pumpkin is a popular vegetable and it is known as “sitaphal or “Kaddu. It is cooked as a vegetable or a sweet dish on holidays, weddings, festivals and during or after fasting.

Khoya is also known as Mawa. It is difficult to find khoya outside of India but you can substitute it by using powdered milk mixed with heavy cream or ricotta cheese. Khoya is lower in moisture then ricotta cheese that is the reason we need to dry the water from the ricotta cheese and make it like khoya.

1. Transfer the ricotta cheese from container to a bowl and with hand mixer whip it for 4 to 5 minutes. Cheese will become smooth and fluffy.2. Transfer the cheese into a nonstick frying pan, add grated pumpkin, mix and cook on medium heat.

Ricotta cheese

Whipped ricotta cheese

Grated Pumpkin

In a pan add grated pumpkin & cheese and mix

3. In few minutes the pumpkin and cheese mixture start splattering cover the pan and let it cook on medium heat, while stirring frequently because cheese tends to burn from the bottom.4. Once splattering stop take the cover off, and reduce the heat to low and let it cook for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring frequently and scraping down the sides of the pan. Pumpkin and cheese has lot of moisture it takes some time to evaporate.5. Once all the moisture evaporated add sugar, crushed cardamom and saffron and mix it well.6. The sugar will cause to take out more liquid, continue to cook on low heat until all the liquid dry up and you start seeing the oil in the pan7. If you wish add butter or ghee and mix it well and let it cook for few minutes. Turn the stove offf.

Mix sugar in cheese and pumpkin mix

Mixture is ready to spread

8. Grease the plate with few drops of oil.9. Transfer the cooked pumpkin and cheese mixture on the plate. Mixture is hot, take a sheet of aluminum foil or plastic wrap and place it over the mixture and with the fingers press and spread in a circular motion or use the rolling pin to spread the mixture evenly into ½” thickness. There should not be any cracks in the spread.

Place plastice wrap over the mixture

With the rolling pin spread the mixture evenly

10. Place the plastic wrap or aluminum foil on the edges and make them smooth and square them.

11. Lift the foil or the paper, now you have spread pumpkin cheese mixture evenly.

12. Take a knife or a pizza cutter wheel, grease it a little and make the cuts in the spread, either diamond shape or square shape. For diamond shape first cut one side straight lines and flips the plate around about 45 degrees and start cutting diagonally. For square shape cut straight lines both sides.

13. Place the plate in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

14. Once the spread become hard, take a knife and slide under the spread and pick the burfi pieces and store them in an air tight container.

With a knife or pizza cutting wheel cut the Burfi

Pumpkin Burfi

Tips:

1. If you prefer add nuts.

2. If you wish add few drops of yellow color

Please take the time to let me know what you think about my recipe. Your comments would be helpful to me to improve the recipe.